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Steve Butler is underrated, he kept Fro's POS YZ125 running great in those years.
I'll tell you that no one who worked with Luiness would ever put him in the greatest wrench conversation but he was a great motivator and worker.
The Shop
Engine Tuners: Walter Kaaden and Harry Klemm
Suspension Etc: Lucien Tilkens and Steve Simons
Team Mgr: DeCoster
I'm pretty sure that if I'd had those guys behind me back in the day, I'd have made it out of the novice class in a little bit less than the 8 years it took me. Just maybe...
Most of the guys mentioned were great in an 'era'.
Why I nominated Goose was because he started back in 2t days when the mechanic still did the majority of the bike building, then he was prominent in the early 4t days, when carb settings were a minefield, through to now where we have efi and tuning via a laptop. Think about how much bikes have changed during his career, how much he would have had to stay at the front of the learning and development curve.
Then look at who he's worked with and the level of success. None of that happens by luck.
The other big part of a mechanics role that hasn't been mentioned, is the relationship with the rider, communicating and being an amateur psychologist. There's a reason why all those top riders wanted Goose by their side.
A little history lesson penned by Reid when his stepdad retired several years back. Interesting read and fitting for a Warren thread.
Jon R retired a couple of weeks ago. Who is Jon R? If you don’t know, you have missed the history and career of the most accomplished MX mechanic/technician in the history of the sport. It was a career that lasted from the very early 70’s.
Here is a basic listing of those accomplishments and they are truly amazing in and of themselves.
1. 1971. Built and tuned the Honda Factory Baja 1000 bike ridden by Gene Cannady.
2. 1972. Built and tuned the 4 Stroke 125cc Honda Factory bike tested and raced by Bruce Baron to a win in a Southern California CMC 125 Pro race. The first 4 stroke to ever win a CMC Pro 125 class race. Let me put this in perspective. The 125 class was limited to 125cc regardless of engine type. It was a 125cc 4-Stroke against 125 2-Strokes. Also at that time, So Cal was the most competitive area in the WORLD for the 125 class and CMC was the biggest racing club there. In fact, More National Champions graduated from the CMC ranks in the 70’s than any other racing organization in the country. You get the point……..
3. 1972. Test rider AND technician for the Prototype Honda CR250 and CR125 Elsinore.
4. 1972. Technician for Top Japanese Racer Hediaki in the Trans-Am Series on a Open Class Honda 2 Stroke. The first Honda 2-Strokes ever seen, let alone raced in the USA.
5. 1973. Tuned for Gary Jones in the majority of the 250 Nationals. (A falling out between Gary and his father Don with Honda Management led to Gary finishing the season as a factory paid and supplied privateer.)
6. 1974. Led Marty Smith and Honda to first of two 125 National Championships. Jon R was the lead technician and development person for the Honda 125 National Championship effort. Honda captured positions 1-2-3-4 that year with Smith, Bruce McDougal, Chuck Bower and Mickey Boone. A feat that has never been equaled by any manufacturer since.
7. 1975. Marty Smith wins the final 12 motos of the 125 Nationals. This was my rookie season and I rode in the Team Honda Truck with Jon R to all of the 125 Nationals and got 9th. So Jon R did all of Marty Smiths tuning and helped me with my bike between events. Jon R gets credit for complete tuning of two bikes in the same National Championship top ten. I got 9th as a 16 year old. This was the first time I raced against one of his riders.
8. 1976. Helped Marty Smith to 3rd in the 125 World Championships in Europe. Marty actually rode the US Nationals and the World Championships at the same time. This was tough for me with Jon R out of the country. I traveled the 125 National circuit in my van with a friend. We got 6th. This was the year that FMF came out with the WRR (Warren Reid Replica) kit for the CR125 Honda. It used the ‘75 cylinder instead of a Boost Ported ’74 cylinder. It was torquier and pulled longer than the ’74 cylinder. Jon R developed that specification and it was why I had the fastest 125 on the planet in ’75 and ’76.
9. 1977. Jon R was my mechanic at Team Honda and we had some success on the 125 Nationals. I won a 125 National at Rhode Island and GP moto in Canada. We also had great success in the 250 National Class of the Trans-Am series winning the Puyallup, WA round and getting 2nd in the series.
10. 1978. Just before the 1978 Trans-Am series, Jon R went to work for Marty Tripes on Team Honda and I got his mechanic, Merle Anderson. Tripes was supposed to be better than me so he got the better mechanic (Jon R). I won the Trans-Am 250 National Class that year over Broc Glover and Steve Wise. My biggest regret in racing was that Jon R and I never got to share a championship together.
11. 1979. Jon R stayed with Tripes and they got 3rd in the 250 Nationals and I think 2nd in the SX.
12. 1979 ½ . Marty Tripes left for Team Yamaha in Sept ’79 after the Nationals were over and before the Trans-Am began. Jon R started a career with Yamaha that lasted until a few weeks ago.
13. 1980. Marty Tripes didn’t do much with Yamaha in 1980 and they didn’t re-sign him again. This was the second time I raced against his rider.
14. 1981. Yamaha assigned Jon R to Broc Glover for 1981. It was a brilliant move. Although they are not similar at all in personalities, they are very suited to each other business-wise and their business was Motocross Racing. Broc could be very hard to work with. Broc is a self made perfectionist for himself and everyone around him. Jon R is just naturally that way for himself, but is more easy going personally to be around. Broc is loud, Jon R is quiet. Broc complains about everything and Jon R complains about almost nothing. Broc’s ultimate desire is to win. Jon R’s ultimate desire is to win. See the connection. Broc and Jon R won the 500 National Championship that season for Yamaha.
15. 1982. Broc and I rekindled our rivalry from the 125 class in the ‘70’s to the 250 Nationals. Hansen and Johnson beat us and Broc got 3rd and I got 4th. It was the third time I raced against his rider. I think it could be argued that us four had one of the hardest fought 250 National Championships ever.
16. 1983. Broc went back to the 500 Class and won the championship again.
17. 1984. With Broc again. No Championship but won plenty of races.
18. 1985. Broc wins the 500 Nationals again. He actually won the SX Title too. Rules favoritism for Jeff Ward gave him the title though. If you don’t know the controversy, here it is. Ward and Glover were close on points going into the final round at the Pasadena Rose Bowl. And here is where I have first hand knowledge because I was in the infield of the race (I had retired the year before). I was right next to the course ribbons and watching a place on the course where the riders came out of a corner and went up about a 5 foot high jump face. Jeff Ward, not 10 feet from me, went sideways going up the face and actually crashed as he slid out going up the jump face. His bike ended up on the top of the jump with the front wheel on the face and back wheel at the very top of the jump. Jeff picks his bike up on top of the jump (It was stalled) and he coasts backwards down the face of the jump and bump starts his bike at the bottom going another 10 feet or so to turn back to the right direction and finish. I knew the AMA Rule. If you ride backwards on the course, you are disqualified from the Moto (Nationals) or Heat, Semi or Main (SX). I knew when I saw it that Ward just lost the title because if was DQ’d from the Heat race, he couldn’t ride the Semi to make it to the Main. HE LOST IT RIGHT THERE. How wrong I was. The AMA caved to the promoter (Mike Goodwin, since indicted for the Murder for Hire of his former business partner Mickey Thompson and his wife Trudy. You know Goodwin’s credibility is crap) who wanted a showdown in the Main Event between Glover and Ward. Jeff got into a Semi and made the main and won the title, so you have to give him that. But I’ve seen other riders DQ’d for the same rule violation every time it happened and no matter what the circumstance, and it didn’t happen this time. Broc Glover and Jon R and Yamaha got hosed. You have to wonder if this ruling was retaliation for the Title Glover won over Danny LaPorte back in ’77 with the infamous “Let Brock (sic) By” chalkboard to Brock’s teammate Bob Hannah at the final 125 National that year.
19. That was the last Gold Wrench award for Jon R. Though Broc was on winning Trophy/Motocross Des Nations teams and continued to win through the 80’s.
20. Jon R then moved to doing all of Yamaha’s Suspension duties for the 90’s and 20’s. His winning riders were Jeff Emig, Doug Henry, Jeremy McGrath, Mickey Diamond, Chad Reed, John Dowd, Damon Bradshaw. Jeez, the list just goes on. If you rode Team Yamaha in the 90’s or 20’s, you worked with Jon R. How many championships with that group alone? A ton.
21. During the past 5 years he has also done the Road Racing Suspension for Team Yamaha and Anthony Gobert winning a Superbike National a couple of years ago was the first time they had won in a long time and it was only after Jon R came over to the Road Race Team.
Jon R’s contribution to Motocross at the highest levels is second to none. He is acknowledged by his peers and his riders alike as the Best Motocross Mechanic EVER. I have had some of the greatest tuners in MX history during my career, Brian Lunis, Dave Arnold, Roy Turner, Ron Heben, Dave Osterman, Cliff White, Bob Oliver, Donnie Emler from complete seasons or just individual races. MX tuning geniuses all, but Jon R was and is the best. Period.
That’s but a small part of Jon R’s contribution to MX. It is incomparable. His biggest contribution in life was to my mother and my brother and me. We were a one-parent family living day to day when I was in my early teens. My Mom did a couple of great things though. She never accepted a dime of public money. She worked one and sometimes two jobs. She rented rooms out of our house to help pay the mortgage. My brother and I even lived in the garage so we could rent out two of the three bedrooms. We had old furniture and house paint and a plain landscaped yard. But she had a pickup truck and we had cheap dirt bikes and instead of going to the movies or playing organized sports or watching TV, we went to the desert or the mountains every weekend to ride. We met lots of people and through a friend of a friend we met Jon R. My Mom didn’t just meet him. We all met him.
He was a family friend for a couple of years before it got more serious and he married my Mom. He married her in spite of the wild sons she had. He was such a quiet guy, to most outside observers, it probable looked like the marriage would be doomed to failure. But as so often happens in successful relationships, differences can be complementary instead of conflictual. It was that we with our family. He taught us so much by just being himself and not trying to change us. His is a model of instruction to potential Step-Parents. Do not discipline, just lead. Don’t tell the kids what to do, do something with them. For us it was motorcycles and cars and stereos and electronics. Jon R could fix anything and he taught me and my brother how to do the same. We both ended up in jobs from the knowledge we got from Jon R. We learned more from him than any college.
Jon R never did more than a little college. He was a Navy man who fixed radios on Jet Fighters on Air Craft Carriers. He worked for his dad’s Honda/Tractor/Lawnmower shop in Illinois in the late 60’s before Honda hired him.
Jon R has always been hyper interested in electronics and science. In his retirement he is going to be doing university level research into fusion in his garage. I am not exaggerating here. He has literally built (not bought) his own X-Ray machine from parts bought on ebay and vacuum tubes made from mayonnaise jars. He’s even built equipment to test the X-Ray frequency that enables him to evaluate the elemental level makeup of any material he chooses to measure. This stuff is way out of my league of understanding. He has built a Fusor and is internationally recognized by Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratory scientists as having the most well built and highest performing Fusor in the world. And he built it in his garage. Go to fusor.net and explore to learn more about this technology.
We can only imagine what advancements to MX will come out of this experimentation. I get to test it first though. Some men retire to the garden or the TV or to the RV or to quiet digs in a sunny place. Jon R is retiring to the garage and oh the things that will come out of there. If you’re at the Anaheim SX next year, look for an orange glow to the north of the stadium. It is probably Jon R going nuclear in his garage a couple of miles away.
(originally I’d mistakenly written Billy Whitley’s name here who went on to become Cernics Kawasaki team owner.)
SOME of these modern mechanics appears bike parts assemblers / life managers
Brian Lunniss golden era.
Joe Skidd of SSS Suspension.
He was Rossi's suspension guy. That is an elite club.
Pit Row
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